Rising stars The Blinders set for hat-trick of Leeds appearances

Hotly-tipped Manchester-based band The Blinders are set to win plenty of friends in Leeds with three shows in the city before the year is out.

The alternative rock band will play two gigs at this weekend’s Leeds Festival and are also down to return to the city when they take on an autumn tour.

The Blinders will headline the BBC Introducing Stage at the Bramham Park-based festival on Saturday 25th (stage time 7.10pm), but before then will also headline the Festival Republic Stage tonight as part of the Dance to The Radio night that takes place for festival early goers (stage time 10.15pm).

The band recently unveiled the video for new single ‘Brave New World’, an anthem about the distorting impact of hyper-capitalism, referencing everything from Trump’s Presidency to Aldous Huxley.

‘Brave New World’ is taken from The Blinders debut album ‘Columbia’, which will be released on September 21 and is available to pre-order. The album also includes the singles ‘L’Etat C’Est Moi’, which was a Huw Stephens Tune Of The Week on Radio 1 and playlisted at 6Music, and ‘Gotta Get Through’, which spent five weeks at number one on Amazing Radio.

Loosely based around the concept of Columbia as “an alternate world informed by reality”, on the album The Blinders display a ferocious intelligence, as informed by history, literature and art as they are by Britain’s current political and economic woes.

The striking cover of ‘Columbia’ pictures singer/guitarist Thomas Haywood in the tribal warpaint he wears for live shows, where he assumes the fearless persona of Johnny Dream.

Produced by Gavin Monaghan (Editors, The Sherlocks, Goldblade), the album sees 21 year-old childhood friends Haywood (vocals, guitar), Charlie McGough (bass) and Matt Neale (drums) follow Johnny Dream on his spiritual awakening, from the coruscating swagger of the opening ‘Gotta Get Through’ to the raw, ultimately redemptive finale ‘Orbit (Salmon Of Alaska)’.

The Blinders have been picking up specialist radio support since their first DIY releases from the likes of Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and Daniel P Carter, Radio X’s John Kennedy, and 6Music’s Chris Hawkins and Steve Lamacq, who recently had the band on his show for a BBC Music Introducing Session.

They will follow their festival appearances with a 22-date UK headline tour in the autumn, which will check in at Leeds at the Brudenell Social Club on Sunday, October 28.